Daily Archives: July 8, 2009

In an interview with the New York Times, 76-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg reiterates the need for a stronger female presence on the Supreme Court and says the pro-life movement is fighting a “losing battle.” Ginsburg, the sole woman serving on the Supreme Court, eagerly awaits the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor and says that throughout her career, she has noticed the stereotypes that affect how her actions are perceived. In the interview, she recalls how an unintended interruption of former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor became a news story about rising tensions between the two, despite the fact that the male justices interrupt one another constantly. Lastly, Ginsburg says that the anti-abortion movement is “fighting a losing battle” by trying to make a woman’s right to choose a decision for each state, adding, “Time is on the side of change.”

The 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, so Massachusetts sued the U.S. government today.

Its lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, argues the act “constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law.” It says the approximately 16,000 same-sex couples who have married in Massachusetts since the state began performing gay marriages in 2004 are being unfairly denied federal benefits given to heterosexual couples.

“They are entitled to equal treatment under the laws regardless of whether they are gay or straight,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said at a news conference.

Massachusetts is the first state to challenge the federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.